The present invention relates to recovery and towing vehicles, and more particularly to an attachable boom accessory for such vehicles.
A class of vehicles, commonly known as "tow trucks", includes traditional recovery vehicles having rear-mounted hoist booms for lifting and/or moving a disabled vehicle. In addition, there are more recently developed flatbed trucks that employ tilting and extension mechanisms for orienting a bed member as an inclined ramp for receiving a vehicle, the bed being moved to a horizontally oriented carrying position subsequent to receipt of the vehicle. The flatbed type truck is equipped with a cable winch that is located at or ahead of a front extremity of the bed for drawing the vehicle onto the bed. When the winch is required to move a vehicle from a relatively remote location (such as when retrieving a vehicle that has left the road), the bed and/or the cable is subject to becoming damaged as the cable is drawn forcibly over a rear extremity of the bed. Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,279, which is incorporated herein by this reference, discloses a boom accessory that attaches to a hydraulic underlift that is commonly installed at the rear of flatbed tow trucks, the underlift having a wheel lift or "T-bar" connected thereto for towing a vehicle in addition to the load carried on the bed. (Underlifts are also installed on many recovery vehicles, and in cases of using underlifts to the exclusion of recovery booms, fixed recovery hoist booms are sometimes removed.) The patented boom accessory is locked in position by re traction of the underlift hoist, and include s a base for engaging a ram of the underlift hoist, and a boom member rigidly extending upwardly and rearwardly from the base for mounting a sheave that can movably support a winch hook cable of the truck, the base being configured for being in locked engagement with the ram when the ram is retracted against the base. A sleeve member extends within an end extremity of the boom member for receiving a sheave assembly stem. Optionally, a modular trailer hitch receptacle extends rearwardly from the boom member proximate the base
The patented accessory has proven to be highly effective in many situations. However, it is not entirely satisfactory in some situations, for example, when it is desired to recover and transport trailers such as travel trailers and goose-neck trailers.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved hoist boom and fifth-wheel trailer hitch accessory for tow trucks that is more effective in recovering and transporting different types of vehicles.